SANTA CRUZ (January 2011) – Discovering lice on your child’s
head is more than a medical issue – it can throw your household into a
tailspin. At a moment’s notice you may have to keep your children home from
school, spend hours combing through their hair, and rid your home of an unknown number of teeny-tiny bugs.

It’s a particularly grim scenario for working parents. And
unfortunately, bad advice about defeating lice is almost at prolific as are the
little beasts themselves.

It is widely believed that head lice will crawl out of a
victim’s hair and hide in clothing, bedding, rugs and couches – and there
wait hungrily for days or weeks, eager to scamper onto a new host.

As a result, parents are commonly advised to wash every
stitch of household bedding and clothing in scalding water, vacuum the carpets
and furniture daily, place bike helmets and hats in the freezer for 24 hours,
and wrap all soft toys in airtight plastic bags for two weeks … or three weeks …
or a month.

The truth is that head lice rarely leave a victim’s
head, as they cannot survive for long away from our body warmth and blood
supply. They will not infest or lay eggs on your sofa or plush toys. And
interesting research has shown that limited housecleaning, targeting only
bedding and some personal items, is just as effective in preventing
re-infestation as a heroic sanitation blitzkrieg.

“Lice can eat only human blood, there’s nothing else in your
house for them to eat. So why would they go to your couch?” said Dr. Dale
Pearlman, a Menlo Park physician whose research on head lice has generated
worldwide interest. “No (research) articles have ever reported finding head lice
on couches or plush toys, there’s no evidence in the literature of plush toys
with head lice eggs stuck on them.”

Dr. Pearlman believes that the popular emphasis on
housecleaning has its roots in World War I, when diseases carried by body lice
killed millions, and public health campaigns of the era necessarily focused on
the cleaning of clothing and bedding. Body lice live and lay their eggs in the
folds of clothing, venturing out only to feed on their human hosts. Head lice, on the
other hand, live full-time on the human scalp, and cannot survive long without
our body heat and regular blood meals. Head lice do not carry diseases, while
body lice can carry typhus, relapsing fever, and other lethal microbes.

Fortunately, body lice in the U.S. have been nearly
eradicated by modern laundry practices, and are now mainly a problem in destitute,
homeless populations.

Recent research supports the contention that head lice rarely
venture from their home scalps – unless it is directly to another scalp. The
American Academy of Pediatrics notes that transmission of lice is almost always
the result of direct contact with the head of an infested individual. Picking
up lice by way of a hat, brush or comb is “much less likely, but may occur
rarely.”

A study conducted by the Head Lice Research Centre in
Australia examined public school classrooms for evidence of free-roaming head
lice and came up empty-handed. Researchers examined children in 118 classrooms,
and collected 14,033 lice from the heads of 466 infested children – about 20
percent of the total. Researchers then meticulously examined the classroom
floors, and found not a single free-range louse.

The same researchers then turned their attention to
pillowcases, and examined the heads and pillows of 48 infested subjects. The
subjects were found to host an average of 38 live lice apiece, yet examination
of their pillowcases after they rose in the morning found a total of two louse nymphs
– an incidence of about 4 percent. Other research found that machine washing
and drying was sufficient to reduce this “slight” risk of infection from shared
bedding.

Dr. Pearlman asked the 133 families participating in his research trial to simply sanitize the infested child’s combs and brushes, have
the child change into clean clothes, and to heat all of the child’s bedding in
the clothes dryer for ten minutes before replacing it on the bed. Despite
this minimal cleaning, only 6 percent of the research subjects later suffered
recurrences.

Busy parents can also turn to hair professionals who will
come to your house, inspect your family’s scalps, and expertly treat
infestations. Santa Cruz hair stylist Brooke Butler (831) 325-7730) runs a
downtown hair salon, but also makes after-hours house calls to help out parents
overwhelmed by lice anxiety. Butler’s matter-of-fact approach is reassuring,
and she relies on non-toxic treatments to “Get That Louse Outta Your House,” as
her flyers promise.

Pearlman says his patients are sometimes skeptical that his
recommendations aren’t more onerous, but they often stop him later and thank
him profusely. “To not have to clean up your house, and not have to comb out
the nits – it’s like a gift from the gods for busy parents.”